Overview

This book presents a sociolinguistic ethnography of the linguistic landscape of Chinatown in Washington, DC. The book sheds a unique light on the impact of urban development on traditionally ethnic neighbourhoods and discusses the various historical, social and cultural factors that contribute to this area's shifting linguistic landscape. Based on fieldwork, interviews with residents and visitors and analysis of community meetings and public policies, it provides an in-depth study of the production and consumption of linguistic landscape as a cultural text. Following a geosemiotic analysis of shop signs, it traces the multiple historical trajectories of discourse which shaped the bilingual landscape of the neighbourhood. Turning to the spatial contexts, it then compares and contrasts the situated meaning of the linguistic landscape for residents, community organisers and urban planners.

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9781783095629

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This book presents a fascinating insight into the changing role of Chinatowns in today's urban landscape. - Theo van Leeuwen, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Author Information

Jackie Jia Lou is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, City University of Hong Kong. Her main research interests are linguistic landscape, sociolinguistic ethnography, multimodal discourse analysis, and language, space and place. She is on the editorial board for Linguistic Landscapes: An International Journal.

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